Tim Allen on GREYHAWK is out there,...

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Tom Young
Skilled Systems Installer
Posts: 215
Joined: Sat Aug 27, 2005 7:57 am
Location: Rockport Maine

Tim Allen on GREYHAWK is out there,...

Post by Tom Young »

and made his way to Rockport. We don't see many transients, off the milk run, no stores, and a little exposed, you have to be adventurous to spend the night in Rockport Harbor. So the Allens are, they rowed over to my mooring to introduce themselves this week. Very nice folks.

I took this shot as they got their dog ondeck.

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catamount
Candidate for Boat-Obsession Medal
Posts: 378
Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2005 7:30 am
Boat Name: GREYHAWK
Boat Type: Peterson 34
Location: Boothbay Harbor, ME
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Delivery and Cruise Report

Post by catamount »

Tom has inspired me to download the pictures off my camera and post some updates!

I don't have pictures for the whole thing, but here's a not-so-brief overview of our delivery and cruise:

GREYHAWK was launched in Marblehead, Mass., on the afternoon of Thursday June 25. After the yard crew finished stepping the mast, my delivery crew and I spent the rest of the afternoon rigging the boat, bending on the sails, and attending to other chores. Finally, we went out to dinner at Flynnies. When we got back to the boat at about 8:00 pm there was not much left to do but get underway, headed for South Freeport, Maine. We ended up motoring all through the night into the next morning, as there was no wind to speak of. While we had the Milky Way in full glory overhead, onshore all along the coast was experiencing a night full of thunderstorms that provided us with quite a light show. We learned later that microbursts in New Hampshire brought trees down. Friday morning (6/26) off Portland, the wind filled in enough for us to be able to sail for a while, then died and we motored again, then blew again allowing us to sail up Broad Sound, then died again and we motored into the Harraseeket and hunted for our assigned mooring. While we were motoring up from Marblehead, my wife and son drove over to my mother-in-law's house in Yarmouth. Wendy came down to South Freeport to pick us up, and we went up to Yarmouth for showers and dinner. The guys and I spent the night on the boat, while Wendy and Ben (and the dog and cat) stayed in Yarmouth and all came to join us Saturday morning (6/27), as we were entered in the Harraseeket Race -- a pursuit format.

The weather was fine, and eventually the wind filled in and we had a great race chasing the slower boats around the course, and being overtaken by the faster boats that started after us. In the end we were second in our class... After hanging out at the Yacht Club for a while, we retired to the boat for the evening, but upon listening to the weather forecast, we decided it would be better to motor up to Boothbay Harbor that night than the next day, so we off-loaded Wendy, Ben, the dog and cat -- as they would drive up to Boothbay -- and we set out. As the evening progressed, the fog settled in and the wind picked up -- from directly ahead, of course. So we motored all the way up to Boothbay Harbor, which is easy to enter at night, even in the fog, and made fast to our familiar mooring around 1:30 Sunday morning. Fortunately, I had managed the previous morning to finally get the GPS to talk to the Nexus NX2, which in turn was talking to my laptop running MacENC, so it was easy to keep track of where we were...

After we all got cleaned up and had breakfast, we spent the rest of Sunday (6/28) shuttling the delivery crew back to Marblehead to retrieve their vehicle. And it rained a downpour -- we were all glad to be encased in a dry and heated rubber-gasketed steel and glass envelope rather than sitting out in the cockpit sailing into this stuff. Coming up the previous night in the fog seemed the better course of action...

Wendy, Ben, and I (and the dog) didn't get back to Boothbay until that evening. We spent Monday (6/29) and Tuesday morning (6/30) hanging out in Boothbay attending to various chores getting ready for our family cruise.

Tuesday afternoon we left Boothbay Harbor and motored through the fog to Harbor Island in Muscongus Bay, where we anchored for the night. Wednesday (7/1) we motored and sailed through the fog to High Island off the Muscle Ridge Channel. After exploring the quarry in the rain Thursday morning (7/2) we sailed up to Rockport. We met Tom there upon rowing back out to our boat after exploring the town that afternoon, which is when he took the picture. Friday morning (7/3), we walked the dog up to the Camden Hospital for Animals to board him for the weekend, and then set off for Deadman's Cove on Eggemoggin Reach, first motoring in fog (surprise, surprise), but eventually we were able to sail the rest of the way. We spent two nights moored in Deadman's Cove visiting with Wendy's relatives for the 4th of July, but got underway again after Brunch on Sunday (7/5) and sailed back to Rockport. The weather was fine, and the wind was such that we made good time and got in sufficiently early that we were able to retrieve the dog from the kennel that afternoon.

In fine weather on Monday (7/6) we sailed across West Penobscot Bay to the Fox Islands, motored through the Fox Island Thorofare, and then sailed out the east end down to Seal Bay where we found a spot to anchor.

Better than TV:
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Leaving Rockport, the dog happy to be back with us:
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Snacking underway:
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While in Seal Bay, we hauled Wendy to the masthead to help re-lead one of the recalcitrant spinnaker halyards:
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She doesn't mind going up there -- she enjoys the view:
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The cat stayed on the boat the whole time:
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usually sleeping on Wendy's bunk:
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After walking the dog that evening, I noticed the sun was about to set and illuminate the boat with a special light, so I rowed back out with my camera:
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The place we chose was a narrow slot between two islands, so we set a stern anchor as well as the bower.

Then it was Ben's turn to row around:
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and he took this picture of the dog, the cat, and us watching him:
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Tuesday (7/7) the forecast was for winds out of the east again bringing showers for the next several days. So we decided to make our way back to Boothbay Harbor, perhaps a bit more directly than we originally planned. Upon leaving the protection of Seal Bay we found that the winds really were blowing pretty good out of the east, and had built up a pretty significant chop in East Penobscot Bay. Ben was not too happy. Eventually Wendy convinced him to let us set some sail, starting with our smallest storm jib. As we turned more of the corner around Vinalhaven, and the wind came further aft, we coerced him into letting us upgrade to the heavy weather staysail. Finally, when we were running dead downwind, and while he was occupied with something else below, we quickly unrolled the 135 genoa before he could raise any further objection. When he realized the speed it had gained us, and how clever it was to be running with the staysail sheeted out to windward and the genoa pulling to leeward, he came up smiling despite the rainy day.

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There is no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing! So, make sure you're well equipped with appropriate clothing:
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(Wendy does enjoy sailing fast!)

It was still raining when we arrived in Port Clyde, but the dog still needs to go ashore, and Ben was very interested in the military surplus amphibious landing craft that was parked on shore.

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Here I am with the dog, standing next to one of the tires for scale (again with the appropriate clothing):
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Wednesday (7/8), we sailed on back to Boothbay Harbor, again with easterly winds bringing showers, and then drove home to Keene that evening.

Since we've been back, the weather has of course been great, so we've made much progress converting GREYHAWK's old tent into a skateboard half-pipe!
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We'll be back for the Boothbay Harbor Yacht Club Regatta next weekend....

Tim A.
Tim Allen -- 1980 Peterson 34 GREYHAWK
Harborfields Housekeeping Cottages, West Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Sailors for the Sea, a new voice for ocean conservation
boatsnh
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Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2009 6:55 pm
Boat Name: IRIS
Boat Type: Dickerson 36 Ketch
Location: Concord, NH

Re: Tim Allen on GREYHAWK is out there,...

Post by boatsnh »

Hi Tim,
Nice photos, & nice commentary. For all us folks sailing in the rain I'll say again - gotta love decent foul weather gear. Warm is good. We sailed "Iris" down from Portsmouth NH to Westport Ma about the same time - nice weather most of the way - But enough rain/grey/cold to keep on the foul weather gear - one of the best investments on the boat. The joke on the boat was "Mike looks like Quinn the eskimo" in his hat/coat/bibs/boots .

I saw your photo with the nice boarding ladder - looks like one I saw on the Concordia site. very nice. Did you make it?
Many happy 09 voyages!
mike
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